CHAPTER 949: CHAPTER 949: DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE?

"Is it Lao Wu and them?" Yin Mo nervously asked.

Li Qiao lifted her gaze, looking at the cliff below, "Maybe."

He Chen and Shang Yu also followed the sound to arrive, staring at the screen with flickering coordinates, the man’s thin lips pressed together, his brows and eyes filled with somber color.

At that moment, Yin Mo fiddled with her fingers, volunteering, "Qi Zai, let me go in."

Li Qiao lifted her head from the screen, easily reading seriousness and solemnity from her eyes.

"You don’t know anything and still have the nerve to show off?" He Chen mocked Yin Mo bluntly, striding up to her, his long arm blocking and pushing her behind him, "Sister-in-law, give me the remote."

Yin Mo looked at the back of He Chen’s head, frowning slightly, her tone incredibly sincere, "There are over a dozen landmines within two hundred meters of the jungle, are you sure you can handle it?"

She asked only out of concern.

But to He Chen, it was an insult to his character.

He shot a sinister glance at Yin Mo, pinching her soft left cheek and shaking it, "One day I’ll make you see if I can handle it or not."

Yin Mo slapped away his hand, once again stepping in front of Li Qiao, "Qi Zai..."

"Have you heard of the M1A829 antipersonnel booby trap?"

Yin Mo honestly shook her head, "No."

Li Qiao curved her lips in a smile, turning to face the silent Shang Yu, lifting the remote screen as she spread her hands, "It has to be me."

The man’s lips were pressed so tight they turned pale, and even his jawline instantly tensed up.

He Chen, hand on his hip, raised a question with bulging cheeks, "No, sister-in-law, are you sure there are antipersonnel booby traps inside?"

"Mm..." Li Qiao’s expression was calm, meeting Shang Yu’s gaze, "The unmanned minefield is a man-made barrier ground, aside from the booby traps there are also infrared landmines. The mine-clearing robot can only scan the position but can’t dismantle, the booby traps are equipped with decoy devices, and some bushes have hidden decoy devices."

He Chen’s eyes were deep, chuckling lightly as he glanced at the cliff, "Damn impressive, if you weren’t Li Qiao, I’d think you had been in the military."

"It wasn’t long, just half a year." Li Qiao thought for a moment and replied.

He Chen: "..."

Hearing this, Yin Mo’s eyes immediately sparkled, "Qi Zai, let me accompany you."

Li Qiao pursed her lips and shook her head, looking at the silent Shang Yu, "Let’s head back first."

The man’s voice was low as he responded, then took her hand and got into the car.

He Chen squinted his eyes, glancing quietly at Yin Mo beside him, pinching her cheek again, "Sweetie, when necessary, talk less."

...

On the way back, Li Qiao leaned against Shang Yu’s shoulder, neither of them spoke.

Zuo Xuan and others were still waiting below the cliff, the mine-clearing robot stopped beside the fluctuating landmine coordinates, the night was pitch-black, the visibility in the forest was nearly zero, even if a rescue was to be made, it would have to wait until daylight.

Meanwhile, at a training camp 300 meters away from Liao Mountain, in the vast monitoring command center, the embedded wall monitors were displaying real-time images of the surroundings.

In the center of the command center sat a man in training uniform, about forty years old, with thick brows and tiger eyes, plain looks, but an incredibly strong aura.

Behind him stood the pot-bellied Na Ji, reporting the situation with eyes lowered.

After a while, the man twirled the pen in his hand, laughed with a rough voice, "Once they’re in the jungle, it’s easier to handle."

Na Ji nodded repeatedly, "Mr. Bai, and after this..."

The man slowly turned around in his swivel chair, the bright light overhead revealing a large scar across his left brow.

Smooth scars, like a gunshot wound.

This person, Bai Mingyin, the brow injury was inflicted by Li Qiao.

He raised his hand to touch the concave left brow, his gaze shadowed with darkness, "We still can’t find the landmine distribution map for the minefield, I’ve been in charge for so long, it seems I need to re-plan."

"Mr. Bai, you mean..."

Bai Mingyin ground the floor with his combat boots, "Find two useless subordinates, send them in. By tomorrow morning, I want to see the minefield lit up like fireworks."

Na Ji’s expression shifted, "Mr. Bai, my subordinates are all my own people."

"Reluctant?" Bai Mingyin applied a little pressure on the pen in his palm, breaking it with a snap, "Then why don’t you go in yourself."

Na Ji shook his head frantically in fear, "You’re joking, I’ll handle it right away."

After he left, Bai Mingyin stared at the command center door, pushing against the ground with his foot, sliding in his swivel chair towards the control console, he picked up the intercom, lowly instructing, "Send a strike team to watch Na Ji, if he tries anything clever, dump him into the minefield."

"Yes, Commander."

...

At four in the morning, deep in the jungle.

Xia Siyu squatted on the ground, her face pale, her eyes unfocused.

"Miss Xia, just hold on a little longer..." Luoyu, leaning against a tree trunk, looked at the robot a few meters away, reassuring her again, "Maybe that little robot belongs to Madam."

Xia Siyu tightly pressed her lips together, cradling her right arm, hallucinations induced by significant blood loss had already started to appear.

The jungle was pitch black, as if she saw Yun Lih in her daze.

The swaying shadows of the trees, every one of them was him.

"Miss Xia..." Luoyu was also injured, but not as severely as Xia Siyu.

While fighting with the opponent, she had been slashed a few times, with not much blood loss but severe exhaustion.

Xia Siyu clutched her arm, with trembling fingers pushing forcibly on the gunshot wound in her upper arm.

The nearly numb wound burst into unbearable pain under the pressure.

But pain was the best weapon to keep her awake.

Xia Siyu’s head spun with dizziness from the pain, she steadied herself and spoke slowly, "Luoyu, move a little further away."

"No way." Luoyu stubbornly refused her request, "If we die, we die together."

Xia Siyu weakly shook her head, "If we both die, who will go and complain to Qi Zai? I still count on her to seek revenge for me."

Luoyu adjusted her legs slightly, Xia Siyu quickly stopped her, "Don’t move, I’m trembling badly."

Under her feet, she was stepping on a landmine.

Luoyu gathered her energy, slowly standing up, "Miss Xia, how about I step on it instead..."

"Useless." Xia Siyu continued pressing her wound, the pain making her more alert, "Qi Zai once said, if you step on a landmine, never move. Speaking of which, if it weren’t for me dragging you to the pharmacy today, you wouldn’t have been hurt."

In truth, self-blame was the most redundant emotion.

Xia Siyu only blamed herself for her lack of skill; if only she had followed Qiaoqiao to learn bomb defusal back then, perhaps things wouldn’t be so passive now.

Luoyu wasn’t good with words, never knowing how to comfort others.

But seeing Xia Siyu shrinking on the ground made Luoyu feel uncomfortable.

Xia Siyu got injured because she rushed out at the critical moment to block that bullet.

The pitch-black night always made people sentimental.

On the brink of life and death, various emotions rose to the surface one after another.

Xia Siyu looked up at the deep blue sky fragmented by leaves, murmuring, "Luoyu, do you have someone you like?"